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THE 

PROBLEM 

or 

EXCHANGE 


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Ipg 


This  statement  as  to  the 

“EFFECT  OF  THE  WAR  ON 
MISSIONARY  EXCHANGE”  IS  RE¬ 
PRINTED  FROM  THE  FEBRUARY 
1918  NUMBER  OF  MEN  AND  MIS¬ 
SIONS.  IT  WAS  WRITTEN  BY 
HOWELL  S.  BENNET  OF  THE 
BOARD  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 
OF  THE  REFORMED  CHURCH. 


•'V 


3 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  EXCHANGE 

W *8?  *8? ~ ‘8?  ‘8?  ‘8?  ‘V  '8?  %’  V 


THE  missions  with  which  I  am 
most  familiar  are  in  China,  India, 
Japan  and  Arabia. 

There  is  no  exchange  question  in 
regard  to  lands  occupied  by  the  Ger¬ 
mans  and  their  allies,  especially  the 
Turks.  Money  is  gotten  to  these 
places  with  the  utmost  difficulty  and 
in  many  cases  cannot  be  forward¬ 
ed  at  all.  Any  lawful  way  to  get  it 
there  is  the  rule  and  that  is  bound  to 
be  expensive. 

In  newly  occupied  territory,  where 
communications  have  been  long  inter¬ 
rupted  and  it  is  desirable  to  get  funds 
in  quickly,  the  cost  is  high.  A  recent 
remittance  to  Bagdad,  which  has  come 
to  my  attention,  cost  about  eleven  per 
cent.  The  large  part  of  the  expense 
was  in  getting  the  money  from  Busra 
to  Bagdad.  Better  communications 
will  greatly  reduce  this. 


Thrte 


General  exchange  is  complicated 
with  the  silver  question  in  China, 
India  and  Arabia.  Japan  being  on  a 
gold  basis  the  cost  of  remitting  can 
never  get  above  the  actual  cost  of 
sending  the  gold  there.  At  present  the 
price  of  a  yen,  Japanese  unit  of  value, 
is  fifty-one  and  three-eighths  cents. 
Before  the  war  it  was  about  fifty  cents 
of  our  money. 

In  India  there  is  an  arbitrary  stand¬ 
ard  set  by  the  government,  a  pound 
sterling  being  worth  fifteen  rupees.  A 
pound  sterling  is  now  selling  about  ten 
cents  less  than  before  the  war  so  there 
is  a  slight  advantage  in  this  arrange¬ 
ment.  As  rupees  are  silver  the  rise  in 
that  metal  has  been  very  expensive 
for  the  government.  I  speak  of  the 
trouble  Great  Britain  is  having  with 
the  rupee  as  it  affects  the  whole  situa¬ 
tion.  If  silver  reaches  the  point  where 
it  is  possible  to  melt  rupees  and  sell 
them  at  a  profit  as  bullion  the  British 
Government  will  lose  money,  conse¬ 
quently,  Great  Britain  and  the  United 

Four 


States  are  working  together  to  stabilize 
the  price  of  silver  by  the  purchase  of 
large  amounts  direct  from  the  mine 
owners. 

Chinese  exchange,  as  previously  men¬ 
tioned,  is,  at  the  present  time,  a  large 
item  of  expense.  China  is  entirely  on 
a  silver  basis  but,  while  it  is  necessary 
to  pay  more  for  Chinese  silver  coins, 
unfortunately,  the  coins  have  little,  if 
any,  more  purchasing  power  than 
when  they  did  not  cost  so  much.  Pre¬ 
vious  to  the  war  the  Mexican  dollar,  a 
recognized  unit  of  value  in  nearly  all 
commercial  transactions  with  China, 
sometimes  sold  as  low  as  forty  cents; 
that,  however,  is  an  exceptional  price 
and  the  average  for  some  years  has 
been  about  forty-seven  cents.  A  tew 
months  ago  when  silver  was  steadily 
rising  Mexican  dollars  were  selling  for 
eighty-seven  cents  in  China  and  rupees 
were  being  melted  into  bullion  in 
India.  This  was  a  serious  situation  and 
prompt  action  was  taken  by  the  British 
Government,  which  brought  the  price 

Five 


A 


of  Mexican  dollars  down  to  sixty-three 
cents.  The  sixty-three  cent  price  did 
not  hold  long,  but  it  now  looks  as 
though  the  price  would  be  stabilized 
at  about  seventy-five  cents.  Whereas 
the  appropriations  for  the  missions  are 
usually  made  in  gold  and  the  mission¬ 
aries  paid  on  that  basis,  it  is  now 
necessary  to  make  other  arrangements 
in  China  and  a  number  of  the  mission 
boards  are  guaranteeing  their  mission¬ 
aries  two  Mexican  dollars  for  every 
gold  dollar  of  the  appropriations.  As 
this  works  out  it  takes  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  gold  to  do  the  work  of  one 
thousand  dollars  before  the  war.  This 
is  a  conservative  figure. 

That  part  of  Arabia  which  has  been 
for  some  time  under  British  control 
has  much  the  same  banking  condi¬ 
tions  as  has  India;  however,  in  the 
interior  the  coin  in  general  use  is  the 
Maria  Theresa  dollar  or  Austrian 
thaler  and  this  coin  is  scarce.  Before 
the  war  one  hundred  Maria  Theresa 
dollars  were  equivalent  to  one  hundred 

Six 


and  thirty-three  rupees.  The  price  has 
been  steadily  rising  and  the  thaler  is 
now  worth  possibly  one  half  more  in 
rupees  than  it  was  three  years  ago. 

The  exchange  situation  today  is  a 
big  item  of  expense  to  the  mission 
boards  and  from  present  indications, 
will  continue  to  be  bad  until  some 
time  after  the  close  of  the  war. 


Seutn 


I 


l  LI 

m 

/  Bp 

w  M 


NATIONAL  COMMITTEE 
NORTHERN  BAPTIST  LAYMEN 
1207  Fifth  Avenue  Building 
New  York  City 


No.  2.  Ed.  2.  SOM,  2-18 


